Anthem may more or less be borked, but Electronic Arts’ still has other offerings that are definitely worth looking into. The publisher is currently holding a sale for a number of its PC titles on Origin. Discounts go up to 80 percent, with the sale ending on March 19^th, 10 AM PST. These include titles like Titanfall 2 (75 percent off), The Sims 4 (63 percent off), Madden NFL 19 (67 percent off), and Battlefield 5 (50 percent off).

You can even pick up some bundles, like Titanfall 2 Ultimate Edition and Battlefield 1 Revolution for 80 percent off. If you’re more interested in the glory days of BioWare, then perhaps the Mass Effect Trilogy is worth a look at 50 percent off. You can even pick up Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2, each a whopping 75 percent off from their original asking price.

However, our personal recommendation is Command and Conquer: The Ultimate Collection, discounted by 50 percent and including pretty much every major C&C title ever made. Command and Conquer, the Red Alert series, Generals, and Tiberium Wars are all bundled together. Just pretend that Command and Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight isn’t there and all is good.

EA has gone ahead and done it. The company has been bleeding goodwill for years now, which reached an almost satirical point earlier this year at E3, when they announced the first brand new Command and Conquer game in years… which turned out to be a mobile game.

Now, EA is trying to make peace with the Command and Conquer fan base, because they have announced Command and Conquer and Command and Conquer: Red Alert remasters, something that they had already previously mentioned they were looking into.

But that’s not all, either, because these remasters will be developed by Petroglyph, which is a studio made of Westwood veterans who worked on the original Command and Conquer games to begin with. That means EA is literally going back to the folks who helped make Command and Conquer into the RTS force it became to help bring it back meaningfully.

The best part? All expansions for both games will be available upfront, and no microtransactions, something that EA was very keen to note in its announcement of the game. Between this, and Warcraft 3: Reforged, and Age of Empires 4, I think we may be starting to see a soft resurgence of the once dominant RTS genre…

The remasters here have not begun development. They will be taking community feedback into account, and will launch on PC.

Command and Conquer is PC gaming royalty, as one of the greatest strategy franchises to have ever existed, but the way the property has been treated over the last few years doesn’t really reflect that. A cancelled game, prolonged dormancy, followed by a mobile game that looks nothing like what fans of the series want are just a few of EA’s biggest missteps in handling the series.

However, there’s cause for excitement for Command and Conquer fans. With the series’ 25th anniversary coming up in 2020, EA has announced on Reddit that they’ll be remastering classic Command and Conquer games on PC.

“As most of you may know, we recently announced Command & Conquer: Rivals, a mobile game set in the Command & Conquer universe,” EA’s Jim Vessella wrote on Reddit. “Following the reveal of Rivals, we heard you loud and clear: the Command & Conquer community also wants to see the franchise return to PC. And as a fan of C&C for over 20 years, I couldn’t agree more. With that in mind we’ve been exploring some exciting ideas regarding remastering the classic PC games, and already have the ball rolling on our first effort to celebrate the upcoming 25th Year Anniversary.

“We are eager to hear your feedback to help influence our current thoughts for PC and what comes next. Over the next few weeks we’ll be talking to fans in a variety of ways.”

They also confirmed that the remasters would have no microtransactions. “We will not be adding any microtransactions to a C&C Remaster,” Vessella wrote in response to a comment.

This is definitely exciting news. Perhaps there’s a glimmer of hope for the future of Command and Conquer after all. Even if we never get a proper sequel, this is still better than nothing.

A sequel wouldn’t hurt, though.

Command and Conquer was among the very many games that were going to be affected by the Gamespy server shutdown, that took a whole many games offline, including literally every single online game ever created for the Nintendo DS and Wii. In the aftermath of the servers going blank, a lot of companies have been trying to make efforts to make alternative arrangements to keep their games online and their communities active, including one truly admirable job done by Bohemia for its games.

EA is not one such company that has made any similar attempts. However, its fans, especially fans of the long running Command and Conquer real time strategy series, have taken it upon themselves to rally around and ensure that the C&C games remain online. One such attempt is C&C Online, which is a free launcher that emulates a Gamespy server and lets players continue to play online, even though the servers have all gone down. It’s even designed to allow the usage of mods.

That is pretty damn neat, and those are some pretty dedicated fans.

The game is being developed by Victory Games, formerly known as Bioware Victory; a division of EA (Electronic Arts), the studio was founded in 2010 with the specific goal of continuing the Command and Conquer franchise and is the third team to have been tasked with the series development after Westwood Studios and EA Los Angeles.

Running on the Frostbite 3 game engine, putting it graphically on par with games like Battlefield 4 and Need for Speed: Rivals. When the game was first announced it was being called a direct sequel to Command & Conquer: Generals, which launched in 2003.

It has since then be repurposed into the first Free To Play (FTP) installation in the series. It was slated for release in 2013 and was going to be available exclusively on EAs digital games service, Origin.

• 1. Development
• 2. Gameplay
• 3. Factions
• 4. Cancellation

Development

Following the successful launch of Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, the LA based development team “EA Los Angeles” was struck by a series of layoffs. With so much of the development team’s staff having been laid off, the future of the iconic RTS series was unsure. The first time that a new entry in the popular series was announced came alongside news of a newly formed video game studio called “Victory Games” in February 2011. Victory Games would be built from new staff and previous staff members from EA Los Angeles development teams.

During their first Q&A blog session, the developers had no problems publically announcing that they were indeed developing the next entry in the Command & Conquer. In mid-August of 2012, Electronic Arts officially announced that Command and Conquer: Generals 2 was to be re-purposed as a new entry into the Free to Play model of gaming. Following the official announcement, which came via a Dev Blog, it was made clear that the game would simply be titled Command and Conquer. This game is set to be the first in the series that will implement the use of DLC.

This DLC will be specifically built for the free to play model. Content that was designed for C&C Generals 2 will also make the transition into Command and Conquer. Continuing with the general dislike of the FTP model in the games industry, this news was not well received by the loyal Command and Conquer fan base.

They expressed displeasure at the planned lack of a single player campaign. In response to this EA President Frank Gibeau has said that there is still a possibility of a single player story. “The beauty of free-to-play is that we can adjust and adapt to what we’re hearing as opposed to, ‘I’m sorry, it’s two months from ship and it is what it is.’ It’s a very different model because you don’t have to build as much. You build in response to your audience.”

Later that year, a single player story was confirmed for the game, giving it a single player campaign.

Gameplay

Command and Conquer will be the same as the majority of the other entries in the series in regards to gameplay. The player will view the battlefield from above and use the mouse to select their units and execute various battle commands; this means that the player will once again have control of large armies with a high degree of customization depending on which units have been included. The development team have made sure to let fans know that unlike Command and Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, this game will not include a population cap (which was not well received) and that it will also see the return of base building, a long standing key feature of the franchise.

Factions

The Command and Conquer Generals factions are being carried over for the free to play game. They are:

People’s Republic of China. The PRC are heavily reliant on sheer military might, but not supremacy. They use extreme brute force and powerful weaponry instead of tactics. They are hindered by limited air units but make up for it with numerous heavily armoured battle tanks. Because of this, the PRC are an assault based army, requiring the player to “meat grind” with their units, constantly pushing forward despite casualties to ensure victory. The main disadvantage to having such a massive and powerful army is that its forces are generally slower on the ground, leaving them open to swift hit and run attacks.

Global Liberation Arm. The GLA are the least technologically advanced out of the three factions, making use of extremely fast but weak ground vehicles. They have zero air capabilities meaning that they must engage guerrilla warfare, this means tunneling beneath the foe, employing the use of suicide bombers, hijacking enemy vehicles and executing ambushes. The GLA gather resources at a faster rate than the other factions thanks to their resourceful salvaging techniques, they rely heavily on an infantry based army model.

The United States of America. The USA is the most technologically advanced faction in the game. They take to the battlefield with a potent combination of Land, Sea and Air forces. The USA employs the use high end technology to defeat the opposing factions; they make use of drones to repair damaged vehicles.

They use various pieces of laser based technology to guide weapons fire and even use lasers to create defensive structures. The American infantry make use of Snipers and Commandos as well as demolition tactics when in the field. They also bring the largest air based fleet to the battlefield, using air strikes and fuel air bombs to great effect. The downside of this mighty technological force however, is the vast wealth required to fund it. The USA takes vast quantities of resources to field, this means that as well as funding a powerful army, the player will need to sacrifice force to protect their resources.

Cancellation

As of October 29th 2013, the game was officially cancelled with all development and  production, stopped. The team that was working on the game has been disbanded and EA aims to find them suitable replacement roles within the company. In a statement that was publicly released on the games official website, EA assured all closed Alpha build participants that any and all money spent would be refunded to them. The announcement reads:

“Generals,

Thank you for your participation over the last few months in the Command & Conquer closed alpha test. It’s been much appreciated, and you’ve been instrumental in helping define what a new Command & Conquer experience should and shouldn’t be.

Part of being in a creative team is the understanding that not all of your choices are going to work out. In this case, we shifted the game away from campaign mode and built an economy-based, multiplayer experience. Your feedback from the alpha trial is clear: We are not making the game you want to play. That is why, after much difficult deliberation, we have decided to cease production of this version of the game. Although we deeply respect the great work done by our talented team, ultimately it’s about getting you the game you expect and deserve.

Over the next 10 days we will be refunding any and all money spent in the alpha. If you have a question about your refund, please contact help.ea.com.

We believe that Command & Conquer is a powerful franchise with huge potential and a great history, and we are determined to get the best game made as soon as possible. To that end, we have already begun looking at a number of alternatives to get the game back on track. We look forward to sharing more news about the franchise as it develops. Thank you again for your participation and support.

– Victory Studios

Bioware Victory Studio’s re-imaging and reboot of the classic Westwood helmed Command and Conquer franchise is nearing release, and we’re being shown more and more of it as it nears completion. This newest video, linked above, gives us an in depth look at not just the game’s graphics and gameplay (which, as promised earlier, is faster and snappier than the relatively more sedate pace of previous installments in the series), but also shows off factions, vehicles, and footage from the game’s campaign.

I had my initial reservations about the game when it was first announced, and then even more when it was announced to be going free to play, but the more I see of it, the more I get convinced. As long as EA does not bastardize a classic franchise of the real time strategy genre, and as long as the core gameplay is not compromised, I’m on board with this.

Command and Conquer is one of the classic franchises of the real time strategy genre, with its hours long matches, laced and interlaced with layers of intricacy, having defined what a typical match in the genre should be like. However, when the new, now free to play, Command and Conquer game launches this fall, it might not have that series trademark- in fact matches may be much, much shorter than the hour long investments they used to be.

“We’ve been noticing since the original Generals, the preferred play session has gone done from an hour plus to 30 to 45 minutes,” said Jon Van Caneghem, general manager of developer Victory Games to Polygon. “So we’ve changed the pacing [of Command & Conquer] to deal with that.”

Are you up in arms yet? Don’t be, because he went on to assure Polygon that fans of longer matches would have that option as well.

Speaking about the monetization of the game, he also discussed how the game would not be abusive or exploitative, but that it would instead be like League of Legends- everything unlockable in game, no restrictions via bullshit timers, and generals being sold with perks. He also mentioned that they are toying with the idea of doing starter packs.

“We are toying around with starter packs,” he said. “Maybe selling them for $30 to $40 and including a half-dozen generals and some currency. That would be for players who don’t want to start from scratch and don’t want to be a totally free player.”

Although I originally disliked the idea of a free to play Command and Conquer game, I might be coming around to it after all.

I’ll be honest, nothing I have heard of the upcoming Victory Games helmed take on the classic RTS Command and Conquer has been encouraging. The fact that the game was given to Bioware’s studios to begin with was troubling, but then its metamorphosis into a free to play ‘platform’ as described by EA was even worse. What excitement there might have been for the game upon its initial announcement was effectively killed when that last was revealed.

Now, the newest video that EA have released showcasing their upcoming game might not fully change your mind on the entire idea, but at the very least, it gives us an in depth look at the game, and it doesn’t look all that awful. I still can’t say it looks good, or that I am excited, but it at least doesn’t look like absolute crap like I was afraid it would.

Check out the video and let us know what you think. Also, apologies for the subtitles that simply cannot be turned off.

And what a line-up they have ready: Battlefield 4, FIFA 14, The Sims 4 (which will be making its debut at the convention), Need for Speed Rivals, Titanfall, Command & Conquer, and mobile games from EA All Play, Chillingo and PopCap.

Electronic Arts also has a media briefing planned for August 20th, at 4 PM CEST/3 PM BST, in which key staff will showcase new content and services for upcoming titles. Does that mean we’ll see some new games to add to the impressive list that EA already has ready for this year and well into 2014? Will we see more information for Mirror’s Edge, or is its exclusion more than telling enough? Stay tuned to find out.

And they’re Middle Eastern.

As Victory Games’ Tim Morten pointed out to Polygon, “This is actually a pretty big change for the game. Anyone who knows this series will know the Global Liberation Army. But at the studio we had a bad reaction from people saying it was pretty offensive to have Middle-Eastern characters as militants.”

So now, enemies in future games will feature generals of different ethnicities to balance things out. Will five different kinds of generals help matters? As Morten pointed out, “Now we’ll probably just offend everybody”.

Optimism indeed. Command